Abstract
This study was conducted to examine the meat quality of three muscles of wild yezo sika deer. Steak and ground meat samples of M. longissimus dorsi, M. biceps femoris and M. semimembranosus of four female wild yezo sika deer were used for experiments. Crude fat content was the highest in M. longissimus dorsi and the lowest in M. semimembranosus. There were no significant differences in drip loss, cooking loss and shear force of steak samples between muscles. There were no significant differences in all textural properties of ground meat between muscles. Cooking loss of ground meat of M. longissimus dorsi was lower than that of M. biceps femoris. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in cooking loss of ground meat between M. longissimus dorsi and M. semimembranosus. These results suggested that water holding capacity of ground meat of wild yezo sika deer did not differ between M. longissimus dorsi and M. semimembranosus.
